is there a way to insert a tab as a specified number (=tab size) of spaces?

I feel that using real tabs on documents that pass through several different editors is often a nightmare, especially when those editors use different settings for the tab size. Therefore my aim is to remove tabs from documents altogether and replace them with spaces already at "tab insertion" time. That makes the formatting consistent - at least with fixed-width fonts.

I have not found an option to do just that so far. Is this a feature you would consider for a future release, or should I go about it myself?

Looking through the code I found instances of hard-coded "\t" insertions in the indent actions. Essentially, my idea was to replace any hard-coded "\t" insertion by a new function call like getTabRespresentation(), where this method would either return a single tab character or the corresponding number of spaces, depending on some preference setting.

Where in the hierarchy would I best start to subclass to implement this? Currently, it looks like overriding just those actions is not enough as they are hard-referenced from the respective editor classes that use them in final arrays (which I'd need to "override" as well). I have the feeling this makes me more dependent on a specific release of RSTA than I want - but maybe I just haven't thought it through enough yet. Any tips, ideas or caveats in this regard?